Friday, September 24, 1999 Published at 16:13 GMT 17:13 UKEntertainmentDiana Ross: 'Mother's touch'Diana Ross touched the breast of a young singer out of concernPop legend Diana Ross has found herself at the centre of another controversy after newspaper pictures showed her touching the breast of another female singer. She did it, she says, because she was acting "like a mother".

Miss Ross, 55, was questioned about the incident when she appeared on CNN's Larry King show to talk about her frisking and arrest at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday.

At the MTV awards last month, Miss Ross reached out and touched the half-naked breast of rap star Lil' Kim.

Miss Ross explained her actions saying: "You get caught up in the MTV Awards and I just ... I was acting like a mother, to say 'Why are you doing this?'"

She went on to say that she had only been thinknig of Lil' Kim's welfare.

"I spoke to her afterwards and told her she was beautiful and she didn't need to dress in that manner," Miss Ross said.

Diana Ross arriving back in New York after her arrest

She was held at London's Heathrow Airport for five hours on Wednesday after she allegedly assaulted a female security guard after a hand search.

Miss Ross says that after she activated
a metal detector at airport security,
the guard "fondled" her and she "felt violated".

After complaining to British Airways, Miss Ross
confronted the officer, touched her and said: "This is how it feels to be fondled." The assault complaint was then reported to police.

When talk show presenter Larry King asked her about the incident, Miss Ross said:

"I was angry. I am not excusing my behaviour, but I guess we all react in different ways for different things."

But she conceded: "I don't think it was a sexual thing or because I was Diana Ross. I think she just forgot that there are human beings and you can't treat them this way."

When King asked Miss Ross how she felt about being labelled a "Diva Deviant" in a New York Post column, she replied:

"I think people that know me know that's not how I am."

Before her arrest, the millionaire star had never been inside a police station. It was, she said, a hellish experience.

Despite her brush with the law, she said she planned to return to Britain to promote a new CD.

"I am supposed to go back there next month. I spend a lot of time there, my husband's job is there and my record company EMI is there, so I will probably spend a lot more time there, " she said.

She added that she had not ruled out making a further complaint or suing Heathrow Airport, although she did not want to make more trouble for herself.